Masybe this year I'll actually manage to keep this up to date... but I'm not holding my breath. I expanded the flower border last year & this is the 1st spring for the new section. I'm nervous about how well it will have overwintered which is ridiculous because I planted things I know - many of them transplants from other sections of the garden. It will be FINE.

We had a more traditional winter - a good 2 months of consistant snow cover & the border was heavily mulched with...

I always say that, yet always find more to do. I bought 3 bags of top soil today & slathered it on top on the leaf mould in the newest section. The 'sandwich' method of soil creation works nicely - a layer of soil, a layer of manure, compost, leaf mould - just keep alternating layers in no particular order & in a season or two, the worms have done most of the 'mixing' for me. It took less than 2 years for the 1st garden sections to go from sand & lumps of clay to laom using this method....

Once the bulk of the work is done, I can relax, look, look some more & start tweaking things. I added a donated rose today that I'm told is pink. I should have seen it out front last year but honestly don't remember. It's former owner tried her best to 'kill it' over the winter, not mulching or giving it any protection. It lived - when I dug it up today there were lots of new shoots above the bud graft. The presence of that at least, tells me it's a hybrid - I really hope it's a floribunda....